The National Complete Streets Coalition, a program of Smart Growth America, announced yesterday that South Bend was one of the winners of a competitive new program intended to help cities make tangible progress toward building safer streets for all of their residents. South Bend, along with the City of Orlando, Florida and the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government in Kentucky will learn from national experts as well as one another in a collaborative setting as they work to implement safer streets.
Each city will host one workshop over the course of the nine-month Safe Streets Academy. These interactive workshops will explore various practical topics including proven safety engineering countermeasures, tactical urbanism, creative placemaking, and community engagement. Each jurisdiction will have the opportunity to practice these skills by implementing a pop-up demonstration project on one of their most dangerous corridors. They will also work with the National Complete Streets Coalition to produce a case study based on their demonstration projects and present actionable safety recommendations to their local elected officials.
“South Bend is proud to be among the leading cities on street safety,” said Mayor Pete Buttigieg. “It’s important that our destination downtown is even safer and more accessible as more people choose to live, work, and play there. This program will help us continue to enhance our safety throughout the City.”
The Safe Streets Academy is made possible through a Safe Systems Innovation Grant from the Road to Zero Coalition, led by the National Safety Council in partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the Federal Highway Administration, and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.
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